| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a waterproofed basement of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.  Basement finished. When a tornado is coming, you're supposed to get in your basement. But what if your basement is filled to the ceiling with water? These weren't brainteasers homeowners in the Northeast had to think much about, say, a decade ago. They became frighteningly germane this week, when twisters tore through the region in the middle of a once-in-500-year rain dump that turned many basements, streets, subways and Newark Airport into deadly water features. One urgent need of infrastructure spending in this country is to reinforce everything from electrical grids to bridges against the ever-more-routine catastrophes global warming causes. Congress may or may not soon deliver a small down payment on that project. But individual Americans also keep finding out the hard way just how unprepared they are for fires, floods, droughts, tornadoes, polar vortexes, plagues, locusts and whatever other nasty surprises climate change has in store. For example, Hurricane Ida was an occasion for many homeowners to discover the value of sump pumps, shop vacs and generators. I foolishly have none of those things at my New Jersey lean-to and now plan to procure them ASAP, along with some sandbags and spare plywood. Maybe an ark. But that kind of stuff costs a lot of money, fellow Jersey homeowner Tara Lachapelle writes, making disaster-proofing a huge growth industry — as Wall Street has already discovered:  But all this spending will be worth it, if it keeps you and yours safe at home when those emergency alerts start hitting your phone at once. We probably won't have to wait 500 years for that to happen again. If it wasn't already clear the delta variant had crushed our glorious post-pandemic economic dreams, today's August jobs report settled it. Payroll growth was much lower than expected, although unemployment fell and wages rose. A unified theory of these contradictory data points is that worries about delta hit consumer demand and also made people afraid to rejoin the work force, causing employers to lure them hither with higher wages. The big question is what the Fed is supposed to do with such a dog's breakfast, Mohamed El-Erian writes. Just last week it seemed possible it could start dialing back stimulative bond-buying later this month. That's probably off the table now. The news comes just as a whole lot of government pandemic-relief measures are due to end, because Congress thought surely the pandemic would be over by now. As the philosopher Rick Perry once said, "Oops." Still, Karl Smith suggests Congress and President Joe Biden should listen to co-President Joe Manchin and resist the urge to offer more relief, arguing it won't help and could cause inflation. Bonus Economic Policy Reading: Biden's $3.5 trillion plan would create new entitlements that would lead to new taxes. — Allison Schrager After months of lackluster effort, vaccine diplomacy has been a dud, writes Clara Ferreira Marques. And that goes for every one of the big vaccine-makers, from the U.S. to China.  And Tesla is, as usual, delaying something. Now it's the Cybertruck. The difference this time is that drivers have a large and growing list of attractive EV options, Liam Denning writes.  Biden's tweaks to the asylum system won't help a massive backlog. Immigration needs a real overhaul. — Bloomberg's editorial board The true threat video games pose to kids is milking them for cash. — Lionel Laurent Apple's search deal with Google isn't sustainable. Apple should make its own search engine. — Tae Kim Pulling the last American troops from Iraq would destabilize the region. — Bobby Ghosh Hybrid working will make urban housing affordability worse, by pushing the wealthy to take up more space. — Noah Smith Most Americans don't pay any income taxes. This isn't fair and makes them care less about government. — Jared Dillian Justin Trudeau is in trouble. Climate change is worsening North Korean food shortages. Americans just can't stop holding fairs. Dogs can tell when you're keeping treats from them on purpose. (h/t Scott Kominers) FINALLY: You can buy Michael Jordan's used underwear. (h/t Mike Smedley) Surgical masks slow Covid's spread, a massive study has shown. Mushrooms are smarter than you think.  Notes: Please send sump pumps and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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